


Sweet and Low

by SonjaJade



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Christmas Caroling, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Music, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 08:08:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8741845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonjaJade/pseuds/SonjaJade
Summary: While on the job, some school children stop in the office to spread some Yuletide cheer- and the best part of all is hearing Riza joyfully joining in.





	

**Author's Note:**

> The song the school children sing is sung to the tune of O Holy Night, if you’d like to sing it yourself! Also, I totally gave a nod to the Lannisters from Game of Thrones. Let’s pretend The Rains of Castamere is Amestris’ national anthem, shall we? The last song is from the German opera 'Hansel and Gretel' called “The Evening Prayer”.

Central Public School #2 was visiting, part of their ‘Giving Back at Yule’ program. The different grades had various things planned for the soldiers at Central Command, from homemade gifts and cards, to cookies, to sing-alongs.  
  
Roy couldn’t be bothered with it, honestly. Yes, he enjoyed Yule as much as anyone else, but he was right in the middle of preparing to return to Ishval for a three week stint to oversee a massive overhaul to the irrigation systems in the southern end of the desert farming lands. Apparently some kind of fungus had gotten into the water supply at the source and infected three hundred acres of figs, dates, and citrus trees. The whole system had to be stripped out and replaced, and Roy insisted on doing it right- with a heat resistant stainless steel reservoir and miles of gleaming, rust proof pipes to match.  
  
But it was hard not to smile when the children came by the office and lit up his subordinate’s faces.  
  
The first group was the third graders, who’d spent days creating a decorated tree for each office on the fourth floor made out of pinecones and salt dough ornaments they’d painted. The fifth graders delivered a small tin of cookies for each solider throughout the building, each with a small hand drawn card with their thanks and the baker’s name on it. But the real treat came when the sixth graders came up dressed in traditional Yule robes and singing carols.  
  
They lined up in order of height, then the teacher blew on a pitch pipe. They hummed quietly, tuning up with one another, and then they began to sing _beautifully_ :  
  
“Oh winter’s night, that seems to last forever.  
The stars shine bright and the moon is round and full.  
Frost coats the holly with patterns crisp and sparkling,  
And the earth hibernates beneath the snow.”  
  
The tune was old, traditional, sung in near perfect harmony and meter- but what surprised him most wasn’t how well the children sung the carol- but how well _Hawkeye_ did.  
  
“The deer chase through the moonlit glen so gaily,  
As if they know the morn will dawn again.”  
  
Her voice was sublime. Every note was treated individually, as if it were an old friend given a loving embrace as it left her throat. Her tone was low and smooth as honey…  
  
“Yuletide so bright,  
In silver and in gold!  
By moonlight we wait for the victory of old  
At dawn, the morning star will chase away the cold.”  
  
They continued on to a jauntier tune, something more festive and less solemn, but the sound of Riza’s gentle voice singing made something in his soul loosen and unfurl… He had absent thoughts of her singing lullabies in the middle of the night to an infant at her breast, and he swore his heart skipped a beat.  
  
He stood up when the choir was finished, applauding the children and thanked them for their incredible performance.  
  
“You’ve made a bunch of pencil pushing soldiers very happy, thank you all so much!” he exclaimed as he came around to shake each child’s hand. After they left, He cracked his back and turned back to the office, smiling.  
  
“I’m feeling full of Yuletide spirit today! How about everyone goes home early to find their own way to give back to the community?”  
  
Braeda made a smart ass comment about supporting the local brewer by buying an extra beer at the bar, to which Falman shamed him and insisted doing what the children had done at a convalescence home would be more nobler, while Fuery said he wasn’t sure what to do.  
  
“If you don’t mind sir,” she interrupted them, “I think me staying the rest of the day might be a bigger help to the entire army _and_ the Ishvalan community than going out to a nursing home.”  
  
Roy sighed. When she was right, she was right. “Alright, you’re exempt. The rest of you get out and do something nice for the citizens of Central!” The men left and he and Riza sat down to tackle the important things that needed to be finished before leaving for the desert immediately following Yule.  
  
After a bit, Roy asked, “Where did you learn to sing like that?”  
  
Her pen never stopped as she answered him. “I didn’t learn it from anywhere. I just opened my mouth and out it came.”  
  
“You sing beautifully,” he said looking up at her. “Could you sing again sometime?”  
  
She returned his gaze. “Yes, sir.”  
  
“Like now?”  
  
She sighed through her nose. “What do you want to hear?”  
  
“The Rains of Castamere.”  
  
She furrowed her brows in confusion. “The national anthem?”  
  
Roy shrugged. “Then you choose.”  
  
She tapped her pen against her chin a moment in thought, then asked, “Do you know the old tongue, sir?”  
  
He nodded. “My aunt taught me some. I don’t know if I remember all of it though.”  
  
She closed her eyes and took a breath-  
  
“Abends will ich schlafen gehn, vierzehn Engel um mich stehn…”  
  
Roy put his pen down, closed his eyes and simply listened. Riza’s pronunciation was true and clear, her voice lilting angelically, even more beautifully than before, though whether it was because she was more talented in the old tongue or because the song she chose was a lullaby his mother used to sing to him as a child, he couldn't say.  
  
When she finished, he almost asked her to sing it again. Instead, he asked, “Will you marry me?”  
  
She gave him a laugh as she got back to work. “Be serious and get back to work, sir.”  
  
He reached over and grabbed her hand. “I am being serious. Marry me and sing to our children just like that every night.”  
  
She squeezed his hand before withdrawing it. “One day. But not today. Now let’s finish the papers so we can leave.” She smiled at him. “I can’t marry you today, but we can have dinner together tonight if you’d like.”  
  
He nodded, putting his nose back to the grindstone. Oh yes, he did like that idea as well. It beat going home alone.


End file.
